Dawgs want to make Sanford all Black

ATHENS – Georgia's seniors made a request of head coach Mark Richt this week, and Richt is passing it along to the No. 10 Bulldogs' fan base.

"They want everyone to wear black," Richt said.

Richt wore black to his weekly Tuesday press conference to show his support for the idea, and he hopes the fans will follow his lead even if he doesn't know exactly the reasoning behind it, he said.

"I said, ‘What do I tell them?'" Richt said. "They said, ‘Just tell them it's a sign of unity for the Bulldog Nation.' I said, ‘OK, that's what I'll tell them. Plus, they said they thought it would look cool."

Penn State University has had the most success with getting its fans to wear one color, packing Beaver Stadium with more than 100,000 fans wearing white shirts. Now Georgia wants to match the Nittany Lions' White Out with a Blackout of its own.

"If we get the black pom-poms too like Penn State has the white ones, that would be cool, too," tight end Tripp Chandler said. "It's about getting the fans to commit to it."

The Georgia student section attempted a mini-blackout during last year's Tennessee game, but the seniors want to see all of Sanford Stadium in dark for the 3:30 p.m. Saturday game against No. 18 Auburn.

"You can't have a half-hearted effort," Stafford said. "I mean you've just got to wear a black T-shirt, it's not so tough."

Georgia's seniors told Richt their idea but didn't pass it along to the rest of the team. Chandler said he learned about it on Facebook.com. Junior linebacker Marcus Washington learned from media members Tuesday.

"I haven't heard about that," he said. "We should probably go to black jerseys too, huh? That would be pretty all right."

Black jerseys are probably out considering Richt only had a week's notice, he said.